The title of this post may be a teeny bit misleading. No’ I’ve not been saving lives or squeezing myself into red swimming costumes but I was on a beach … on one of the coldest, windiest May days I can remember.

So, why was I there? I was part of a group participating in The M&S Big Beach Clean Up – One of a number of days arranged in conjunction with the Marine Conservation Society to encourage to help clean up our beaches.

We went to West Kirby Beach on The Wirral. We were told that actually the beach was quite a ‘clean’ beach anyway and it was a lovely spot when we arrived. Even in howling winds! I’m ashamed to say I didn’t even know West Kirby Beach existed even though it is less than an hour away from here. I was invited to take my children but as it was a school/nursery day, I gathered together the troops and got some friends to bring their little ones (I bet they were secretly cursing me when they saw the state of the weather!)

Helpers were armed with bin bags and some grabbers and instructions not to pick up anything remotely dog-poo-like and off we went. There was soon team work involved as the wind meant you couldn’t pick up and hold a bag open at the same time and it was surprising how much we collected. There was due to be a grand weigh in but it didn’t happen (we were too busy munching on our free BBQ supplied by M&S by then) but it was amazing how many bags could be collected off a short patch of seemingly spotless beach. NOTE: If you are thinking of having a late night beach BBQ – take plastic bottles with you and take them home at the end! There was so much glass.

For more information you can go to the Marine Conservation Society’s page Forever Fish – where they have the following information on how much litter has been collected so far…

A huge thank you from MCS and M&S
Thanks to the 6,000 volunteers who took part in our Big Beach Clean-up in May – for helping us to collect a whopping 11,500kg* of litter!

The sun didn’t shine at every beach but this didn’t stop you from filling over 3,200 bin bags of rubbish, including 12,800 wrappers and 2,850 tin cans. Lucky litter pickers even found a set of false teeth and half a sofa in Edinburgh, a carpet in Clacton and a pink thong on Shoreham beach!

Sadly, we didn’t find anything as exciting as a pink thong (thank God!).

To get the kids involved there are plenty of facts, activities and games on the School of Fish resource page.

Hope to see you at next year’s Big Beach Clean Up – I’m so proud that we did it!

We are huge fans of sprinkles in this house – be they 100′s and 1000′s or stars or dots.
We have tons of uses for them:

* On porridge
* On ice-cream
* On Cake Pops
* On homemade ice-lollies using smoothies – Think FAB lollies!
* Dipping bananas into them
* In shakers to keep Baby T occupied – it doesn’t matter if the container breaks, she just gets a treat!

I’m happy to have teamed up with the folk at Dr Oetker who are giving away a set of goodies similar to those in the picture – and yes, you will get sprinkles too! The great news is that you can experiment with ready to roll icing (I have talked on here before about how I always buy in bright coloured icing – life is just too short to make your own).

All you have to do is leave a comment, telling me what is your favourite use for sprinkles.

For extra entries, you can also do any (or all) of the following:
* Follow Casa Costello on Facebook and leave a separate comment telling me you have done so.
* Follow Dr Oetker on Facebook and again leave a separate comment telling me you have done.
* Tweet saying “I have entered @HelenatAardvark’s fabulous competition to win Dr Oetker goodies http://goo.gl/U5qTO” – Aaaand another comment please, telling me you have done.
* Follow Casa Costello on Networked Blogs … and you know the score, leave a comment!

The giveaway will close at 9PM on the 1st June when a winner will be drawn from a random number generator. The prize will be sent direct from Dr Oetker once address details have been given.

Good Luck and thanks for entering. Looking forward to trying out all your uses for sprinkles!

Another crazily busy week but am so much chirpier than last week’s Cake of the Week post. A lot of smaller cakes this week (including some Jubilee cupcakes that I forgot to take pictures of! Gasp!)

It seemed that each of the cakes from this week, had a story behind them. Sometimes this makes it easier, but sometimes it takes a bit of thought to work out where each element will go.

For the Harley Davidson cake, I knew that the colour scheme had to be black, silver and white and that the Harley had to go most prominent. Kevin is building his own bike, therefore all the extra parts hanging around. Kevin also spent most of his childhood digging holes and I think he now works for JCB so that had to go somewhere. I’ve never made a teeny JCB before and absolutely loved the finished product – the picture doesn’t really show how cute it was. The ‘soil’ was made with soft, dark brown sugar. As a massive Widnes Rugby League fan, there were rugby balls dotted around the outside of the cake too – a bit of everything!

Another cake from the Costello kitchen this week, was a 50th wedding anniversary cake. Now here was a brief … a fun couple so not a traditional cake. To incorporate the tartan of the band that Homer plays with, to include some bagipes (I have since become obsessed with mini sugar bagpipes) and to show Glenys’ love of shopping – therefore the Selfridges bag, shoe box and a bag of pearls. Homer also collects war memorabilia so I made a teeny rifle.

Lovely to see so many entries for Cake of the Week, last week and even nicer to see everyone visiting each other and commenting on the cakes.

I know Kim through the WI but until now did not know what a superstar she is with icing – I couldn’t comment on her actual facebook page but keep going back to the picture as I am just amazed. That cake is sooo neat.

I defy you not to fall in love with the cute little sheep on Elaine from LittleSheep Learning’s cake – the cake was to celebrate 7 years of Littesheep Learning being in existence.

Jackie was back with a comical 50th birthday cake as was Angie from Cakesphotoslife with a wonderfully bright flower cake – just perfect for a cheery summers day.

Thank you lovely ladies for taking part – can’t wait to see what you all come up with next week. Maybe we might even get a male participant. Remember, its not a competition – just a chance to show off!

Just a quick one! Some Grand Prix F1 cupcakes for a friend. Stuart is 34 today, therefore why all the little cars have 34 on them.

The chequered flags were all drawn on by hand (with an edible pen!) and the road lines were painted on by hand.

I really loved having a play with these – I’m due to make some Jubilee cupcakes later this week and need a little inspiration. Will you be doing any cupcakes this week?

One thing that surprised me most after having Baby T was that the Baby Belly just didn’t want to budge. It seems that 3 babies are just too much for those poor stomach muscles. I must be honest though, I have a healthy addiction to cake and crisps and they don’t help my sylph like figure either.

I have discovered exercise though and am pleased to report that today, as a result of being more active (and still eating all the kids’ Easter Eggs), I threw out my ‘big jeans’. Hurrah!

If you too, are hoping to throw out your big troosers (its a good excuse to go shopping for more), then I can help.

I’m happy to say I have teamed up with Sportsshoes.com to offer one lucky reader a brand new pair of trainers up to the value of £90. How fab is that?

There’s a huge selection of running shoes available, to help you look and feel fabulous as you are exercising (or lets face it, just wear everyday) View the range here:

The winner will choose a pair of running shoes up to the value of £90 which will be sent out directly.
To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment – if you want to tell me, where you would wear the trainers that would be great.

For extra chances to enter, you can also do the following:

* Follow Casa Costello on Networked Blogs – and leave a separate comment saying you have done.
* Follow Casa Costello on Facebook – and leave a separate comment again.
* Tweet the following “I have entered @HelenatAardvark’s fabulous giveaway to win Sports Shoes to the value of £90 http://t.co/S4nzZXFJ” – and leave a comment telling me you have done.
* Follow @HelenatAardvark on Twitter for more giveaways coming up and frankly more of the same drivel I speak here! And you know the score, leave a comment please

The competition will end on Saturday 2nd June at 9PM _ a winner will be chosen from a random number generator as soon as possible after this. Thanks for entering – Good Luck!

Here’s some small terms and conditions (It’s just the usual stuff, nothing scary)

1. Competition is only available to individuals aged 18 and over.

2. The prize will be sent out within 28 days.

3. The prize must be redeemed within 6 months.

4. The prize will be a pair of running shoes selected from www.sportsshoes.com/running up to the value of £90.

5. Sportsshoes.com reserves the right to provide a substitute prize of a similar value should the specified prize become unavailable for reasons beyond its control. Cash or credit alternatives will not be offered.

6. Sportsshoes reserves the right to amend, suspend or cancel the competition without notice and/or review and revise these terms and conditions at any time without giving prior notice.

7. The publisher’s decision is final.

This cake could also be tagged as the cake that nearly led to divorce/a breakdown. Its fair to say, it hasn’t been an easy week – sometimes being a mother of 3, running my own business just catches up with me. Matched with people making a LOT of demands on me, not returning my calls/emails and people letting us down, it has made for a stressful week.

Not the fault of the couple who ordered this cake though – they were completely lovely. Very organised with pictures of themselves, swatches of the correct tartan and detailed descriptions of how they saw the cake but with enough freedom to be creative.

The cake itself wasn’t without its problems – I had to remake the middle chocolate tier as it was a massive explosion in the oven. The blue dress just didn’t sit right the first time I made it so that got redone too and I nearly forgot the pinky sandals and french manicure on the lady – Yep, every little detail was included.

I did have some lovely moments with the cake though. The couple’s 9yo son said it was the best cake he had ever seen (He can come again!) and I just loved making the man’s beard.

We had another good week of entries for Cake of the Week last week.
Sarah gave us a wonderfully simple (but so neat) piano cake.

Jackie has made a welcome return to Cake of the Week with a fabulous football cake

I promise to try to be a little more cheerful next week – another busy week ahead but hopefully it will be a good one. In the meantime, this crazy little one is bound to make things ok …

So what will you be up to this week? Cheer me up with some of your fabulous creations.

A totally new cake for me this week (Yay!) and the reason that Cake of the Week is running slightly late – Oops, we were out partying and then out with friends last night (Yep, we have some!)

Anyway, on with the cakes – I have to admit that I had to google Raa Raa the Noisy Lion as I had never heard of it. The eldest girls have moved on from CBeebies and Tara just isn’t interested in TV – weird, I know! Raa Raa seems like a friendly chap but the size of his head gave me cold sweats. Even with a creme egg body, I still struggled to keep him upright but managed to lean him next to the cake.

The colours on the cake matched Ruby’s napkins, tablecloths etc at her party – I was really pleased with the combination. The ‘tree trunk’ was made using a cake pillar and some leaves on wires poked into the middle.

The girls had the most amazing time at the party. Vi bonded with another little girl that she goes swimming with and Millie played Mum with Tara -bonus! And it was held in our close, so we didn’t have far to stagger home. Perfect.

Last week’s Cake of the Week linkup was brilliant – I’m loving exploring the new blogs I’m coming across and the creations out there are wonderful.  Kate from Five F’s gave us a wonderful sounding Lavender Cake – I’ve not used lavender in cake yet but keep intending to after the success of the Lavender Cookies. Lisa showed us her first attempt at a number 13 birthday cake for her son – she really made me laugh at her horror of the tins not having bottoms – we’ve all had the same thoughts, Lisa!

Julie from MyLifeandKids amazed me with this fantastic Peppa Pig Cake – I tend to shy away from Building cakes but from seeing this I want to give one a go.

And then I came across this from Angie at Cakesphotolife – Wow!! Angie says in her post that she is proud of this cake – and so she should be. I really must get to grips with my Giant Cupcake tin but seeing this wonder gives me the jitters. Just fantastic!

Thanks so much everyone who takes part in Cake of the Week, I completely love it that the cake community is so strong and supporting of each other.